There is yet to be available mobile petroleum recovery equipment which can be rapidly deployed at a petroleum spill accident so that the spilled petroleum product can be quickly, efficiently and cost effectively recovered from the sea, or other aqueous environment. Moreover, the recovery equipment and techniques presently available have serious drawbacks in that they are only useful for certain aspects of petroleum containment and recovery and they are all labor intensive and relatively inefficient.
The term "petroleum" means crude oil and all fluid derivatives thereof including gasoline, jet fuel, home heating oils, etc. and also includes other liquids which have a specific gravity less than water so that they float.